


Aftermath (The Way to the Truth Remix)

by Neverever



Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Infinity Gauntlet, M/M, Self-Reflection, Tony Stark Has Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-04 11:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13363293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverever/pseuds/Neverever
Summary: Tony wants to turn back time to when he and Steve didn't fight over Ultron.





	Aftermath (The Way to the Truth Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lets_call_me_Lily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lets_call_me_Lily/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Bottled Demons (the stubborn lies remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13331880) by [Lets_call_me_Lily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lets_call_me_Lily/pseuds/Lets_call_me_Lily). 



> Written as part of the Flower Chain in the Cap-IM Remix Relay challenge. This relay is part of a chain; you can find the full [masterlist](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Cap_Ironman_Relay_Remix_2018/profile) on the Collection profile page.
> 
> Thanks to my beta, Arms_plutonic.

Dammit, he could use a drink right now.

It had been one hell of a couple of days. Starting with Natasha breaking into the Infinity Stone vault and ending with Steve threatening to quit the Avengers.

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned forward in his chair, knocking empty soda cans and Steve’s identicard to the floor. Right, Steve had handed in his card.

Sometimes he wanted to punch Steve, lay him out flat and just keeping walking. Where did Steve get off saying that he couldn’t stay on a team where his team leader didn’t trust him? Tony was _trying_. He really was. Give him a break! He had no idea Ultron would come back! Although there was a slight possibility, admittedly.

There was always a chance in the universe _something_ was going to happen.

He heard the happy voices of the rest of his team outside gathered around the grill and picnic table. Two floors up, Steve was packing to go.

Where would Steve go? Back to SHIELD probably. He didn’t have anywhere else. Of course Fury would welcome Steve with open arms and a list of important missions.

Tony choked down a sip of his soda. Got to get back to work, Stark. Got to track down Ultron and find a solution. Check in with the Guardians for updates on Thanos or the Infinity Stones. And find more guacamole dip — stat.

Funny how some of the most powerful objects in the universe ended up on Earth. The Power Stone had nearly destroyed Steve when Steve had accidentally picked it up. He had hung on longer than any human had the right to. Then Tony’s own brush with the Time Stone....

He rubbed at the arc reactor. The memory of the embedded stone tugged at him -- that strange buzz, the helpless feeling, the fear of not knowing if he was going to blink out of existence. But Steve, that pillar of strength, was right there for him.

What wouldn’t he give to have that stone back, thinking of the smooth orange stone in his hand and Steve’s arm around his back. A small weight, with so much power. He could turn back the clock and change any moment he wanted.

What wouldn’t he give to take back his argument with Steve? To take back what he said. Or take the time to explain himself. To turn Steve’s frown to a smile. To end up here together, instead of apart.

He flicked through the images on his computer screens, finally stopping on the blueprints for Arsenal.

_Arsenal._

Failure to protect Arsenal still weighed heavy on him. That’s what all this was about -- losing the robot that his father had made for him. An automated mechanical friend designed as the perfect companion for tiny Tony. When his father couldn’t be there. The one thing his father entrusted to him.

He stopped short.

He’d known Steve for years now. Been his friend through thick and thin, backed him up when he needed it, drawn on Steve’s strength when his was low. Hell, he got the team back together to rescue Steve when Steve’s life was in danger. Side by side through all of that. And through late nights in the Tower, in the Avengejet, in quiet moments, when Steve shared his feelings about his uneasy truce with time, caught between the past and the future he woke up in. His struggle to free himself from being shackled to a past long gone.

He should have learned that lesson from Steve. Tony had been there through all those struggles. Now Tony was tied up in the same fight.

The futurist, tied to a robot from his past. And he was near to moving heaven and earth to save that robot.

Yes, he’d always loved robots and AIs. He’d built multitudes of them in his work, in his lab, for training, for companionship.

It really wasn’t that.

Tony never talked about Howard, that link between him and Steve’s past. He thought of the movies encoded in Arsenal that Howard had left for him. It seemed easier for Howard to talk to machines instead of his flesh-and-blood son.

He couldn’t talk to Steve about Howard. Steve thought of Howard as the young inventor from the war, not the aged industrialist that Tony knew. Steve always looked sad, with that little crease between his eyes and that twitch in his jaw, when Tony tried to explain his Howard to Steve.

He’d been quick to lecture Steve about living in the present. Now it turned out, he was just as trapped as Steve had been.

It had to be about Steve. His life was so tangled up in Steve’s that he couldn’t figure out where he ended and Steve began. If Steve walked out of the Tower that night, it would be like Tony ripping his soul in two.

Tony had re-assembled the Avengers to rescue Steve. He had turned to Steve at his most vulnerable, when the Time Stone had turned him into baby Tony.  A dozen — no, a hundred — no, a thousand times — he had put himself on the line for Steve. And Steve would do the same for him for a dozen, a hundred, a thousand times.

Steve would understand. All he had to was talk to him. His best friend. The man he had loved for years.

Swallowing down his pride, Tony knocked on Steve’s door. He didn’t know how he’d be received. Or if Steve would even answer. JARVIS would tell Steve Tony was the one knocking.

He put his forehead on the door. “Steve?” he begged.

The door slid open and there stood Steve in a leather jacket. Tony bit back his first impulse to say something about Steve’s tight jeans. He raised his head to meet Steve’s eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes that betrayed a hint of simmering anger.

“Please don’t go.”

“Tony,” Steve said, his voice cracking. Then he pulled Tony into his arms.

Tony collapsed against Steve, his head on Steve’s shoulder, Steve’s hand rubbing up and down his back. An ocean of misunderstanding remained, but they had time to talk it out. In the bright daylight of tomorrow over coffee and waffles.

But right then and there, it would take the end of the world to rip Tony out of Steve’s warm embrace.


End file.
